The exhibition exposes how artists from the region and its diaspora reflect on aesthetics, existence, remembrance and futurity

On view at Ishara Art Foundation until 20 May 2023, group exhibition Notations on Time examines the philosophical and political dimensions of time through the works of 20 contemporary artists from South Asia and its diaspora.

Curated by Sandhini Poddar and Sabih Ahmed, the show sparks a dialogue among artistic generations to shed light on the relations between the past, present and future, questioning, ‘What happens when residues from the past are reincarnated into the future? Where does the jurisdiction of the present end? What is the future of the past? What possibilities can the space of an exhibition offer to think through these questions?’

Chandraguptha Thenuwara. Installation view of Beautification – Scale of Themis and Beautification – Hand of Themis (2013). Shown in Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artist. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

Culture Hub sits down with co-curator Sandhini Poddar, a renowned London-based art historian and Adjunct Curator at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project. This marks her first major curation in West Asia.

Notations on Time stages a dialogue between artistic generations to highlight entanglements between the past, present and future. Why is this dialogue so important, especially today? 

When Sabih Ahmed and I were discussing the parameters for this exhibition, it was clear to us that we needed to highlight a few intergenerational artistic dialogues, which often remain underrepresented within the domain of curatorial practice and exhibition-making.

Artists do not work in silos; they are informed by prior art histories and movements, and their artistic circles and peer groups are highly influential. Conversations between Jagdish Swaminathan and Jangarh Singh Shyam; Ladhki Devi and Rajesh Vangad, as well as Lala Rukh and Mariah Lookman, for instance, afforded us an opportunity to think critically across ‘generational time’ and the cross-pollination of ideas and styles that ensues through prolonged relationships and kinship.  

Haroon Mirza. Detail view of Light Work xlix (2022). Shown in Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artist. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

The show explores the philosophical and political dimensions of time through the works of 20 contemporary artists from South Asia and its diaspora. How were the artists chosen?

We wanted to stage an exhibition that was open-ended; one which would prompt contemplation and reflection, and essentially be philosophical in nature. The artists in Notations on Time are artists that Sabih and I respect immensely. We have followed their practices over extended periods of time, in our capacity as researchers, curators, and thinkers.

It was important to include practitioners from the region as well as the diaspora, such as Shezad Dawood and Haroon Mirza, for instance, who are two exemplary London-based artists who deal with very complex notions of time. We also wanted to include voices who are perhaps less well known in Dubai, such as Sri Lankan artists Anoli Perera and Chandraguptha Thenuwara, as well as Kabul and Berlin-based artist Aziz Hazara.

Ayesha Sultana. Installation view of Breath Count XXI, XXII, XXIII (2021). Shown in Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artist. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

What possibilities, in your opinion, can the space of an exhibition offer to think through questions of the meaning and existence of time?

This exhibition is essentially a laboratory of ideas: we wanted the artworks to serve as haikus, notations, and cyphers. Although each artistic practice is highly evolved and substantial, the works we have chosen are more diaristic in scale, more intimate, parts of a whole, or perhaps chapters from a book.

Some of the notions of time that are investigated in Notations on Time include: mortal time (autobiography and death); agricultural time (seasons and labour); simultaneous time (events occurring in different places); cyclical time (ideas of reincarnation and regeneration); geological time (the natural world); mythical time (fantasy and storytelling); oral time (songs and folklore); ecological time (accelerated time and climate change); hijacked time (time under paranoia and political unrest); suspended time (migration and the loss of citizenship); lost time (amnesia and forgetfulness); dream time (the psyche and imagination); peripatetic time (spent on a journey); schizophrenic time (madness); civilisational time (archaeology and borders); prophetic time (an intimation of the future), and archival time (time that is represented through the past).

Aziz Hazara. Installation view of Monument (2019). Shown in Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artist. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

Notations on Time explores ontological systems that reveal how artists from this region and its diaspora think about aesthetics, existence, remembrance, and futurity. Collectively, how do the works showcased address these themes on a deeper level? 

These questions and interconnections only come alive in space, so I would prompt readers of this article to visit the exhibition and experience how time can be read on images.

I can however share one collaborative practice that perhaps addresses some of these themes. In early 2013, eminent Indian photographer Gauri Gill began the series Fields of Sight (2013–) with the renowned Adivasi artist Rajesh Vangad, combining the language of contemporary photography with that of ancient Warli drawing to create new narratives.

Shezad Dawood. Installation view of Kalimpong (Ekai Kawaguchi & Alexandra David-Néel) (2016). Shown in Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artist. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

Through numerous conversations and debates, Gill and Vangad co-create each photograph by consciously choosing a theme, poetic or topical, to consider the ideal place to locate that discourse in the photograph-as-landscape and conceptualise the form of the Warli painting that will unfold on the work’s surface. The resulting palimpsests of motifs, figures, and myths demand the viewer’s fullest attention; their surfaces teem with life.

Gill states, “Rajesh’s language, constructed with stick and brush, unfolds entirely from an encyclopedia of forms in the mind, which emerge to reflect the world, memory and myth: wind, disease, apocalypse—anything is summoned forth at will. In my own language, constructed by camera and negative, the world itself is the encyclopedia, and I recognise and edit existing structures to reflect what is apparent in my mind.” Notations on Time includes two such collaborative artworks, both drawn from the Prabhakar Collection.

Installation view of Notations on Time at Ishara Art Foundation, 2023. Image courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and the artists. Photo by Ismail Noor/Seeing Things

As your first major curation in the region, what are you hoping to inspire in visitors of the exhibition?  

One of the recurring tropes I hear about Dubai, and the UAE in general, is that art here is considered in very commercial terms. As a contemporary art curator whose career has been spent working entirely in museums and non-profits, I hope that the evolving infrastructure of cultural institutions will continue to catalyse scholarship and connoisseurship from the ground up.

I have great admiration for institutions such as the Sharjah Art Foundation and their immense contributions to the field. The Sharjah Biennial is now 30 years old! Jameel Arts Centre and Ishara Art Foundation are cultural leaders in Dubai, as is NYU Art Gallery in Abu Dhabi. My own curatorial work on the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project over the past 15 years has been hugely inspiring, and the future museum will certainly become a powerful beacon in West Asia and the wider region. Notations on Time is another immediate pedagogical stepping stone.

Notations on Time is on view at Ishara Art Foundation from 18 January until 20 May 2023. ishara.org

Lead image: Portrait of Sandhini Poddar. Photo by Andrew Testa. All images courtesy of Ishara Art Foundation and respective artists.